The Observatory, which has been tracking Syria’s conflict since it started in March 2011, has been aggressively reporting over the past year on atrocities committed by the Islamic State extremists.
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Istanbul. Turkey’s army said on Tuesday it had detained nearly 800 people trying to cross illegally from Syria, including three suspected Islamic State militants, after bolstering security in border areas near where the radical Islamists hold ground.
The cyber attack comes two days after Islamic State released a video which purported to show two young Syrian activists being killed with gunshots to the head in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, a jihadist stronghold.
The military did not say why the 768 people had been detained.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said the raids were meant to help Kurdish forces, who have been a leading ground force partner for the American-led coalition in Syria.
The Kurdish soldiers claim to have prevented ISIL from attacking several of their positions and entering Kirkuk. Ain Issa is located some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Raqqa.
“We’re intensifying our efforts against ISIL’s base in Syria”.
“From that moment we do not have any more news and we are unable to trace his whereabouts at the present moment”.
Obama said that his commitment in a budget bill is ensuring that current fights aren’t shortchanged by devoting funding “to things we don’t need now” that could make the U.S. “less secure”.
Obama said the group’s “strategic weaknesses are real”, noting it has no air force and no support from any nation.
“We also have to acknowledge that ISIL has been particularly effective at reaching out to and recruiting vulnerable people around the world, including here in the United States”, he said.
The United States president said that the training of such forces had been ramped up after a period that was too slow and that the fall of Ramadi, the capital of the predominately Sunni western Anbar province, had galvanised the Iraqi government.
The Kurds also reclaimed more than 10 villages in Raqa and Hasakeh that were briefly overrun during the IS offensive, the Observatory said. “Some are already being trained and they can be a new force against ISIL”.
The terrorist group is now “dug into the civilian population”, Obama said, complicating further the US’s recruitment and military training program.
“We’re going to have to pick up our game to prevent these attacks”, he said. Obama said the only way for that civil war to end was if President Bashar Assad stepped down; a move, he said, that would unite the remaining factions against the Islamic State.
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“This is a long-term campaign”, the US president said.
